"You are too quick-tempered, when did I ever blame you Mistress Seo…nephew? What on earth are you doing here…" "Aunt, would you care to explain why you have my pregnant wife kneeling on the floor?" I could usually face in him all of his moods, but he had rarely used this deep tone of voice around me and I was honestly a little too frightened to even face him in this moment. As usual; he knew exactly what I was doing and why I was doing it, but it made him angry and with good reason. I knew it wasn't exactly his fault that his clan had descended upon us, but I really did not have the energy nor the mindset to deal with Hui-jae during my pregnancy. It was already a shame that I couldn't just enjoy my pregnancy in peace, or with my brother, so I was going to give him a few hints and go against his will a few times to make my point known. I could take her down on my own, but I needed some additional help as well. "Pregnant…did you just say that she was pregnant?" "Let it be husband; I am being punished because of my incompetence to resolve such a small matter within my husband's household. I cannot ease everyone's worries and submit to your requests without displeasing my husband and I really have nowhere to stand anymore. I have to kneel to…" "No! Please hurry to your feet before your husband thinks ill of me! Please, quickly! It would be my fault for invoking a fight between you so early on in you concubinage and we cannot let an outsider upset you now! Where would we place our reputation if word got out about this and…" "Who the hell said that she was my concubine?" "Aunt, maybe I should apologise to your mother first. I was too direct and blunt with her due to my emotions being all over the place." "Oh no, do not worry about it! She will have forgotten all about it over lunch! Come and dine with us…"
"Absolutely not! My wife isn't dining with anyone in the family! She dines with me alone!" "Why do you say that nephew? We have plenty of wine and red meat and…" "My wife is on a strict diet for her pregnancy and I myself support her by going on one myself!"
"Seo Yeon, it is? As expected, you are rather beautiful, dignified and you have a refined demeanour for someone of you fallen status; it is almost as if you never lived in poverty at all. It is no wonder that my nephew here cannot forget you, you are indeed a rare kind of woman that even our noble folk cannot live upto anymore. But that doesn't mean that you can just say you are married without a ceremony, a matchmaker and witnesses. Did you even perform the temple ceremony according to our traditions and values? Marriage is not simply about individual; it involves the entire clan and the blessings of the ancestors and to ask for their protection and our recognition. Without all of that; how can you be recognised as the official and main wife?" "Is that so? Because the last time that I did all of that; I did it in the presence of The Seo Family a while ago with plenty of witnesses. I carried out the marriage ceremony, but I did nothing according to The Nam traditions, simply because I am no longer a Nam." Relief was an understatement to what I had felt when my husband pulled out the marriage certificate that he had made various copies of from his robes to show her before he dragged me up from my knees any longer. How I wished to just fall into his arms right there and then, but the clan didn't look like they were going to leave us alone anytime soon and I had to get this over with just so I could eat my lunch in peace.
"Abandoning one's wife without a formal divorce is a minor matter and the punishment for such an act would be secondary. But damaging one's reputation is a rather major matter and…" "For such a thing too take place, you also need an official registration of your marriage." "I informed The Emperor of this a long time ago and he gave me a written promise to marry whom I see fit. I have also informed him of my no concubine rule which was acknowledged by him, so there is no way for me to take any other woman into this household."
"There is no consequence of the clan that my husband has severed relations with not recognising myself and my new status, but the same cannot be said for the life that I hold inside of me. This is acknowledged by The Seo Clan who has a higher standing than yourself at present, since there aren't that many divorced women of your age at all. And everyone who holds The Emperor's word will also recognise me as the main wife, that is all that I need. Going against his words to sander me and sow discord between a newly wed couple wouldn't put you in the best position in the public, isn't that right, aunt?" "I…well…" "Forgive me once again, but there are some matters that I cannot step back from, such as the future of my legitimate child who will be our firstborn." "She is my official wife and she is pregnant, and that is exactly why we are planning a separate future from ourselves away from you all. If you wish to have lunch, then the new owner of this home will have to serve you. Come on wife; we cannot mess around with your diet at all, you heard what the physician said." "What an impassive, detestable, and collected woman that I have met in my entire life! Just who does she think she is? She isn't the only woman in the world who has gotten pregnant, but now what can I do? I must not let those women harm that baby no matter what, I cannot use them for the kill anymore. The veil deeds are done by others and carried out by them; and that baby can pull us out of the darkness if his father refuses to. Those girls are clever enough to watch us fight each other without doing anything at all; but they are not as tough- boned as we need them to be."
That is the last that we heard from them for the rest of the day as my man dragged me by the arm over to our side of the yangban with such force that I felt he could snap my arm off at any time. He had changed once again from the man that held me hostage too return to now an over protective father a year before I was due to give birth. "Husband! Please calm down!" "You certainly went for the big kill in the ancestral shrine, but don't you dare think of taking my children down with you!" He angrily dictated to me as he began to undress my from my outer robes for the very first time so that I could breathe a little bit more. "My family all have the cunning to have others speak for them, so we need to do the same as well. All of he evil is done by others as they are shown to be extra grateful wih nothing to complain about. But if my damned aunt didn't consent to that wild girl coming here, then how could her family have approved as well? Servants! Go and get that girl and prepare her for her service in my aunt's father's bedchambers!" "Husband, please clam down! They are all elderly people with old fashioned ideas that they cannot stand by anymore due to their loss of standing in society, so they have all come to bark at us here and bully you into working together to help build up and protect themselves…." "You used the retreat as advancement and defence and offence well, but now there won't be any clear and concise attacks on us. The sooner I get you out of here, the better." "If you can have a moment of forbearance, then it will be smooth sailing for us here husband, I really do not want anymore turbulence, not now."
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"…just let me be the evildoer when it comes to the new concubine daughter, I have already taken her under my wings anyways." "Husband! Forget about that slut for a minute or 2 and focus on the issue at hand!" "Mother is right father, what on earth did your nephew mean by his big plans sister?" "Honestly I have no idea; the kisaeng girls did mention something about him moving to a separate property with his wife before he fell ill and he was confined here for a while, but now we know that we cannot trust anything that she tells us at all, or the other girl. They will both want to kill that baby, who is our newest clan member and will surely reunite us all in the future. I mean think about it; Seo Yeon is a rather detestable and regent girl for her status, but she was the only one who helped him rise to the top ranks by The Emperor's side. There is no point in getting rid of her if she helps him, but we must have her under our control, and that will be our only path to survival until my nephew is forced to accept us." "Whatever his plans are, he must have your consent sister so matter what, and if it doesn't work, then we can use the girls to bring her down to her knees. They must start to respect us now before they either throw us out of here or we move somewhere else. But we have to conceal our intentions; if we cling onto them too much, then it would also ruin our reputations." "You are right sister; public pinion is good enough to melt old and gossip is a fearful thing indeed. And as for this new girl, The Mistress Han did everything in her power to bring us yet another disappointment. She has already been forcibly had by several people, she should be the one who is kicked out of here first if anything." "But if any of our plans go wring, we nee a scapegoat and all 3 girls are close to each other. We have two tolerate this marriage until further notice, we simply cannot do as we please under their roof."
"What if we manage to convince them to move closer to us; this will allow us to retain some honour and authority and not drag out the distance between us? He surely married her to regain his previous status and his power will reach its peak once again. He will surely help my children and yours sister, and we can rely on him much more than his father." "Seo Yeon still has good morals, she will surely repay other's kindness towards her, despite her husband's unbridled nature. We cannot be too forceful and give them a chance to lecture us once again. So we cannot rely on him excessively either; we must bribe some of these servants somehow in our favour." "Let us have the official concubine serve us and see what we ca gauge out of her first before we set our eyes on anyone else to bribe."